Africa

Kenya and the ICC

Three cheers for a constitution

THE Kenyan government has just annouced that two leading Kenyans will step aside while they defend themselves against charges brought by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Uhuru Kenyatta, the finance minister, and Francis Muthaura, the country's top civil servant, are leaving their positions for the duration of the ICC case. Mr Kenyatta looks likely still to run in presidential elections due early next year. He may even benefit politically from the about-face, particularly as he will continue in the position of deputy prime minister. But Kenya will benefit more from an example of higher standards being applied according to the terms of the country's inclusive new constitution.

This is the first time in a half century of post-Independence history that any Kenyan politician has been forced to acknowledge even the most minimal consequences for their criminal behavior. This observer is unconvinced that the new constitution has anything to do with it, as only the conscience of foreigners has brought this about. As to Mr. Mwaura's suggestion that a Kenyan judiciary can do anything beyond collecting bribes from the highest bidder.... words fail me.

Now if only those conscientious foreigners would do the moral thing and recolonise Africa before it destroys itself. The Chinese are well on their way, but sadly, their motives are rather more suspect than the ICC's.

Kenya is slowly being pushed to the brink of civil war by the I.C.C, the world powers pushed the two principals to a political solution shielding them from criminal responsibility of the P.E.V, pushing the same to their main backers. This has resulted in one side escaping criminal responsibility and the same happens to be the initiators of violence. Now the balance of power is favouring the same agressors againist the same Ethnic groups who have always been victims of political for over two decades. The Hague should stop with immeadiate effect the prosecutions and give Kenya reformed judiciary do its work,The International community should seriously support this to avoid bloodshed in the coming Elections.

The complexities of real life are like that, Kenya is only 50 years. Those mature democracies passed through the path, Kenya should be supported to mature its institutions not pushed by scheming patners. The wounds had started to heal. Igniting animosity does not in any way help the situition...we need sober minds..otherwise!

I wish I could share Boabab's view on the new Constitution. In my experience, documents alone have never brought about good governance. No matter how well drafted, a Constitution is always open to abuse by any determined group within a government. For example, the US Constitution, drafted with the key aim of preventing precisely such abuses by any arm of the government, has produced an obstructionist Congress whose sole aim, in the words of those concerned, is to remove Obama from office. (I bet its drafters never thought about Tea Party bigots when they debated its provisions.) Contrast this with the UK, whose Constitution is largely unwritten, but which would never find itself in that shameful situation. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that it is the quality of people in government that really matters, not the content of their Constitution.

The nascent institutions, the new constitution and the ICC may have their faults, but are a sign of the times, born as they were, after lengthy gestation, just when the world is transiting from the industrial to the information age. They are actually products of the information age, 2 eras away from feudalistic, agricultural age.
African politics has hitherto been mentally feudalistic which, being incongruous with information age, will give way to thinking aligned with the times. These things are happening regardless of whether judges are corrupt or not, whether colonial rule was better or not or whether Uhuru Kenyatta will survive politically or not.
My children, in Kariobangi, a lower middle income estate in Nairobi log onto Khan Academy, just as those in Palo Alto, California do. Inevitably, their aspirations, cultural outlook notwithstanding, are the same and it is very difficult to cheat or otherwise tribalize them.
In his SOTU speech, President Obama talked of digitizing rural America; exactly the same thing we are doing in rural Kenya; High-speed trains – The Kenyan program targets 2016 for the high-speed Nakuru-Nairobi train.
It is upon realizing that these higher standards and equity are demanded by the information age, which the erstwhile North African leaders failed to grasp, that one gets a truer picture of current events and the future. shadaonline.co.ke

Globo-political considerations, will distill into local games to be played, for the time being, with citizens picking the tab, mostly in lost opportunity and lives, not necessarily from violence but poor health systems, corruption in traffic monitoring, diversion of relief food and so on.
The current ethnic politics and foreboding are consequences of poor leadership from day one and 1885 partition of Africa reverberations which entrench idea that the “tribal masses” will maintain allegiance to their ethnic candidate who takes it as a right a la a 16th century monarch.

However, these “masses”, who slayed and displaced one another in 2007/ 08, are cottoning on to the political games and slowly realizing that, as individuals, they gain nothing.

Membership of such a mass group largely comes from the lack of an alternative identity which is why a huge sustainable job creation program, driven by the private sector, needs to be in place.
A model such as the rural/ urban development supply chain (see shadaonline.co.ke) makes people feel they have a stake in things, lets them participate meaningfully in development activities concerning them, creates trans-tribal, issue-based institutions, allows them to earn an acceptable honest living and improves their skills, increasing their earning power.
This is an improvement on the Kazi kwa Vijana employment creation program which had a low ceiling, because it was created to keep people busy and not to nurture productivity on business or social entrepreneurial lines.

In the same way the 18th century industrial revolution led to the political upheavals, this transit into the information age will lead to even deeper political transformations, not only in Kenya, but globally. Wanjiku, the proverbial down-trodden citizen, will have her say, but she must be literate and global.

Your response makes much sense on the surface, but I have a few problems with it. First the fact that the "mature democracies" went through similar experiences should not be an excuse for us to repeat those ugly experiences. Indeed, I'd argue that their experiences should always be there as a warning to the rest of us.

Secondly, you argue that Kenya should be "supported...not pushed..." How do you "support" a country whose leaders were involved in some pretty ghastly atrocitites without condoning those atrocities and/or indulging those leaders?

Third, you assert that "the wound had started to heal" and that the international community should therefore not "ignite animosity." Did you really say "ignite"? What were the atrocities themselves intended to achieve in the first place, if not that very purpose? But even if you meant "to avoid re-igniting animosities", wouldn't that be making a strong case in favour of impunity? I ask because if similar atrocities were to be committed elsewhere next week, all that the rulers concerned have to do to evade justice would be to frustrate any meaningful investigation, and if they're able to hold out for a few years, the international community would then have no choice but to say "let sleeping dogs lie; don't re-ignite animosities." In which case why have an institution like the International Criminal Court in the first place? And more to the point, why did the Kenyan government itself become a signatory to its founding statute, thus pledging to enforce it within its jurisdiction?

But the Kenyan government had had years since the ethnic massacres to arrest and prosecute those responsible and didn't do either. Indeed, it did all it could to shield them from any investigation, never mind arrest or prosecution. It was only when donor governments threatened to cut aid (which accounts for almost half of its budget) that the government proposed a half-hearted investigation, which would have been against the letter and spirit of the ICC Statute, and eventually buckled under international pressure. (Who says aid-dependency doesn't have its benefits?)

And here you are, warning about a "civil war." As if these individuals are being indicted for working for the Red Cross, rather than for instigating one.

Before its fifty years of independence, Kenya had sixty years of uniquely benevolent, responsible, nation-building British colonial government in which to learn decent public behaviour from those who learnt it over centuries. Yet we have seen nothing but steady deterioration of conduct by virtually everyone in public life. Corruption, greed and ethnic inflammation grow steadily worse, while the country's massive economic and environmental problems are ignored by politicians whose sole interest is stuffing their pockets and consolidating power. When scoundrels are the only role models, what can ever change?

Before its fifty years of independence, Kenya had sixty years of uniquely benevolent, responsible, nation-building colonialism in which to learn decent public behaviour from those who learnt it over centuries. For over four generations we have seen nothing but steady deterioration of conduct by virtually everyone in public life. Corruption, greed and ethnic inflammation grow steadily worse, while the country's massive economic and environmental problems are ignored by politicians whose sole interest is stuffing their pockets and consolidating power. When scoundrels are the only role models, what can ever change?

Actually the violence can be traced to the British colonialists, but now that's the past. The situition now requires Kenya to solve the problems using its own instruments especially with the new constitution. The fact is all the ruling class is guilty and shielding one over the other is wrong, which is what the Hague is doing. If we are to achieve proper justice, then we need to charge the P.M. and the President. Otherwise having a majority grouping that feels victimised by the whole world is dangerous.